2012 Books Read

I know I used to be able to embed google docs in a webpage/blog post but can't figure out how. I'm thinking they must have changed things, it can't possible be me.  :)

In an effort to share with the challenge participants what others have read, I am going to at least share the link to the file.  I don't think you have to have a gmail/google account but I could be wrong. If you have trouble, please let me know.

This LINK should take you to the document.

Books read and reviews

Hello everyone!   Once you have finished reading a book for this challenge, please fill out the form (once per book).   This way I can have a list created for other challenge participants to view and see if something strikes their fancy.   If you have a blog or other website and have reviewed the book, please feel free to include your link.  The linked review is not required though.

2012 Cozy Mystery Challenge - rules and sign-up form

It's that time of year again, time to sign up for the annual Cozy Mystery Challenge and start thinking about the books you'll want to read for the next 6 months.

Last year we had a great turn out and I hope we do just as well, if not better,  in 2012.

For those who might wonder what a cozy mystery is, here's a great website that explains it and is a great resource for series:  Cozy-Mystery.com   I also have the 2010 and 2011 list of read books still available on this blog, so feel free to browse through the list to see what members read last year.

Here are the rules:

1. The challenge runs April 1st, 2012 through September 30, 2012.

2. The goal is to read at least 6 cozy mysteries, one for each month.  You can choose to read more, but you must read 6 in order to complete this challenge. You don't have to read 1 each month, you can read them whenever you like, you just have to read at least six.

There are three participation levels for this challenge:

Only the required amount - 6

I think I can do better - 7-10

Feeling very ambitious - 11+

3. While you can overlap with other challenges, please try to have at least 2 of the books only count towards this challenge.  However, if you are doing a challenge where you are working towards a page count or book count, it's ok to count these books towards that challenge. 

4.Sign-up using Mr. Linky. While it would be great if you signed up before April 1st,  you can sign up anytime between now and September 1st.   Update: So it appears if you don't have a URL you can't use Mr. Linky to sign up.. Bummer!  So I think those of you with no blog have two options and you can do either one, whichever you prefer.  Either user Mr. Linky and just put in the URL to this blog or just leave a comment! 

5. You do NOT need a blog to participate.  If you do have a blog, I would love to see a dedicated post linking back this post, but that's not required either.

6. You do NOT have to list the books you plan to read ahead of time, although you can if you want to (and the list can change throughout the challenge).

One change for this year is that I won't be as active as I have in the past, not that I'm always incredibly up-to-date anyway.  I'm currently expecting my first child in early May so I'm going to have my hands full for the majority of this challenge.   I thought about skipping the challenge this year but I love cozies and I know a lot of you look forward to this challenge so I knew I had to do it.

I'm going to create a form for you to enter the books you've read and have it just list the books automatically on the site so others can see what people are reading without me having to re-type everything.    Hopefully things go smoothly with this challenge and I'll be sure to pop-in when I can!

Please let me know if you have any questions and most importantly....HAVE FUN!

Challenge Officially Over

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up!   The Challenge officially ended Sept. 30th. 

I am very happy I was able to offer giveaway's this year and I hope you all enjoyed that added benefit too.
Speaking of giveaways, the winner for the Challenge end giveawa is Yvonne Hodorowski.  Congratulations Yvonne!!!  I've notified the publisher today so hopefully you'll get the books soon.

Once again I want to thank everyone for participating and making this challenge a success.  You all know I love cozies and love to spread the cozy love around.

I have updated the 2011 reads, it should be up-to-date with all the books you wonderful participants read for this years challenge.  Sorry that always took me longer than expected.  Things have been crazy and I was in full training mode for a half marathon and working out a ton.   Changes are coming for me soon but I'm hoping that I'll still be able to host this challenge next year.  Fingers crossed!

End of challenge giveaway!

I'm so excited to be able to offer a HUGE giveaway to one lucky winner.  In order to be eligible for this giveaway the only thing you have to do is actually finish the challenge!  It doesn't matter if you finished months ago or this month, as long as you finish you get an entry.  Oh, and also it has to be shipped to a US address.

Once again the books are being provided by the publisher so I want to send out a huge thanks to them for offering this giveaway and most of the ones I've hosted for this challenge.

The books that will go to one lucky winner are:
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
Sleight of Paw by Sofie Kelly
Quickstep to Murder by Ella Barick
Thread Reckoning by Amanda Lee
Button Holed by Kylie Logan
The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis
Death in a Difficult Position by Diana Killian
Mind Over Murder by Allison Kinglsey


I don't have a fast and effective way to verify that you have finished the challenge (would have to compare to the other form submissions and I'm too busy for that), so I take it that if you fill out this form you are being honest and you have completed the challenge.  Good luck everyone!

September Books Read

Guest Post and Giveaway! Kari Lee Townsend

I am happy to have Kari Lee Townsend submit a guest post for the Cozy Mystery challenge and offer her latest book as a giveaway.    I have a copy of the book myself and I can't wait to get to it this month.    Please sit back and enjoy this post and don't forget to enter the giveaway, info at the bottom.

Therapy for Uncooperative Characters 

Ever have characters who won’t cooperate? Well, I have...and it’s no picnic. One day while writing Tempest in the Tea Leaves, I’d finally had enough. So I cornered my characters and dragged them kicking and screaming into a room with four white walls, a card table in the middle, and two chairs on opposite sides.

                “Wh-what are you doing?” Sunshine Meadows the local fortune teller asked, a startled look on her pale pixie face.

                “What am I doing you ask?” I laughed harshly. “That’s a joke. I should be the one asking what you are doing. I have a deadline, you know, yet you aren’t cooperating at all.”

                “Ha! Told you this was all your fault, Tink,” Detective Mitch Stone responded with a smirk.

                “Oh, no you don’t, bucko!” I snapped, thrusting my finger in his wide chest until he stiffened those broad shoulders of his. “You’re no better than she is.”

                “Double ‘Ha!’,” Sunny spat. “And quit calling me Tink, Mr. Grumpy Pants.”

                “Enough.” I swiped my hand through the air. “I am going to lock you both in here until you learn to get along. Call it therapy.”

                “That’s not therapy. That’s insane.” Sunny stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her peace-sign T-shirt. “I’m not the problem. He is.” She jerked her head in the detective’s direction, her pale green eyes sizzling with indignation. “He thinks I’m a quack, and he sure as heck doesn’t treat me like an equal. I won’t stop until I make him a true believer.”

                “Equal?” Mitch frowned, his dark eyes narrowing and the jagged scar along his whiskered jawline pulsing as he towered over her until she looked up. To her credit, she didn’t step back. “You know nothing about detective work, and half of your so-called hunches are pure luck. One of these days I’ll prove you’re a fraud. You’ll see.”

                “And now I hope you both see why you’ve left me with no choice,” I butted in, then I stepped out the door, closed it behind me, and turned the lock.

                “Wait!” Sunny pounded on the door. “Give us another chance.”

                “You had your chance,” I responded as I moved to the two way mirror. I could see them both, but neither one could see me.

                “I can have you arrested for this,” Mitch boomed with his hands on his hips.

                “I can write you out of the book,” I added. “I win.”

                They both grumbled and paced the room for several minutes, then finally sat in the chairs facing each other.

                Sunny took a deep breath and spoke first. “Look, I know you don’t like the fact that Mayor Cromwell up for re-election and wants us to work together to solve crime in Divinity, or that Chief Spencer and Captain Walker’s hands are tied, but that’s not my fault. None of this is my fault.”

                “Says you.” He swiped a hand through his thick, black wavy hair and then slapped it down on the table. “If you’d kept your nose out of places it didn’t belong, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”

                Sunny flinched, and then snapped her spine straight, thrusting her face into his. “I don’t stick my nose into people’s business ... they come to me. If they need my help, then it’s my duty to comply. You just don’t like that I’m better than you are.”

                He chuckled humorlessly. “In your dreams, Pixie Girl.”

                “Easy there, Spanky. If you don’t learn to play nice in the sandbox, then dreaming is all you’re going to get to do from now on. Do you really think Kari is going to writer you any more fascinating cases to solve? I think not, if you continue to be a grump butt.”

                He huffed out a frustrated breath. “Fine. Truce?”

                “Truce,” she responded, looking supremely satisfied.

                 “How’s that go? Oh, yeah, easy there, Miss Bubbles. We still have a case to solve, and you’re still my number one suspect. Kind of takes the pixie dust out of your wings, doesn’t it?”

                She ground her teeth, ignoring him, and knocked on the door.

                “You two ready?” I asked as I opened the door. “Because I need answers like yesterday.”

                “Don’t worry. You’ll get them. The sooner this case is put to bed, the better,” Tink said.

                “Sorry, Tink, but I don’t sleep with my assistants.” Mitch tweaked her nose as he pushed past us and left the building, hollering over his shoulder, “We’re burning daylight. Let’s move it.”

                Sunny just rolled her eyes and stomped off after him.

                I sighed. It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind, but it was a start.

A little about the author:

Kari Lee Townsend lives in Central New York with her very understanding husband, her three busy boys, and her oh-so-dramatic daughter, who keep her grounded and make everything she does worthwhile…not to mention provide her with loads of material for her books. Kari is a longtime lover of reading and writing, with a masters in English education, who spends her days trying to figure out whodunit. Funny how no one at home will confess any more than the characters in her mysteries!

                Kari writes fun and exciting stories for any age, set in small towns, with mystical elements and quirky characters. You can find out more about her on her website www.karileetownsend.com and also on the group mystery blog she cohosts, called Mysteries and Margaritas, at www.mysteriesandmargaritasblogspot.com

TEMPEST IN THE TEA LEAVES: A Fortune Teller Mystery

In the fortune telling business there are a lot of pretenders, but Sunshine Meadows is the real deal—and her predictions can be lethally accurate…

Sunny is a big city psychic who moves to the quaint town of Divinity, NY to open her fortune-telling business in an ancient Victorian house, inheriting the strange cat residing within. Sunny gives her first reading to the frazzled librarian and discovers the woman is going to die. When the woman flees in terror, Sunny calls the police, only she’s too late. The ruggedly handsome, hard-nosed detective is a ”non-believer.” He finds the librarian dead, and Sunny becomes his number one suspect, forcing her to prove her innocence before the real killer can put an end to the psychic’s future.

To enter the giveaway:
One entry per person.  You do NOT have to read a book in order to enter this giveaway, you just have to be participating in this challenge.   Contest will close on August 31st at midnight (central time).